SERMON Of the True Spiritual Transubstantiation Oppos'd to the GROSS CARNAL IMAGINARY Transubstantiation WHEREIN The true Meaning of the Lord's Supper is opened in order to a constant habitual and actual Preparation to it By T Beverley Printed for the Author 1687. TO THE Christian Readers ESPECIALLY MY CONTINUAL AUDITORS I Offer this Sermon to the Publick as the most satisfactory Resolution concerning the Lord's Supper and its true Transubstantiation in opposition to the false so eagerly contended I have done it with all the Modesty and Inoffensiveness I could without Injury to Truth without Denying Christ before Men. I have put the best Value and all the Value possible upon Transubstantiation that is To Interpret it into a True Scripture Gospel Notion into a Spirituality I confess the very Word nor any one Word parallel to it is found that I know of in the New Testament but the Thing it self is every where in the Gospel of Christ Christ in us and we in Christ Baptiz'd into one Body one Body one Bread a Drinking into one Spirit are favourable to it Christ being All in All the Head putting on Christ but above all dwelling in Christ and Christ dwelling in us joyn'd with Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood are the very same thing with this Spiritual Transubstantiation to which the Bread and Wine are the most fit and sensible Symbols and Christ is as really present in them by his Word sanctifying them into Spirituality as in his Word it self And if we Abide in him and his Words abide in us we are one with him in Both as the Vine and the Branches are one John 15. 1. c. I consider nothing is so likely to satisfie so deeply an engraven Notion in some mens minds as this true and faithful Account of it as nothing could satisfie the confused Lineaments of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream in his own mind but Daniel's Prophetical Revelation of the Thing and of the Truth it self to him I look upon this True Presence of Christ given from the Word of God as the most effectual means to recover those to the Truth who live in Error concerning it to settle the Wavering resolve the Doubtful to confirm and stablish in the one Truth always present the True Christian This is far above all Reasons of Philosophy Vindication from Antiquity and the Fathers concerning it When we find we have that which answers all the Notions of Scripture and is worthy to be its meaning we may be at rest Here the Romanists Zeal for a Transubstantiation the Lutherans for a Consubstantiation other Protestants for a real Presence may find full Reception and just Entertainment in a sense worthy of them if they will accept it Besides this I have aimed at possessing the Minds of Christians with so high a spiritual Notion to recommend the Gospel as Preach'd as in the Lord's Supper in its highest Intendments and Efficacy and to win mens Souls to the outward Observation by their being impregnated with the inward Life and Power In which Pursuit many excellent Truths and of great moment have risen up and offered themselves There remains nothing but to beseech the God of all Grace to give his Blessing to it and to you particularly My very Honoured and truly Loved Hearers to whom it is my constant Endeavour through the Grace of God to open to you together the Spirituality and the Reasonableness of Divine Things whom I commend to God and the Word of his Grace to build you up strengthen stablish settle you and shall thereunto labour while God allows me opportunity with most conscientious Meditations most earnest Prayers and dearest Affections Your very faithful Servant in the Work of the Lord Beverley THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON AN Introduction upon the general view of the Institution of the Lord's Supper as given by three Evangelists and by the Apostle Paul as a fourth compos'd into a Harmony and our Lord's Discourse John 6. lying as a Foundation Page 1. to Page 5. General Observations upon the Harmony giving Advantage to the right understanding the Institution p. 6. to p. 9. The method of the Sermon is laid down in general p. 9. The first general Head shews How Christ gives his Body or his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink in four Points p. 10. Point 1. The Humane Nature of Christ is in sacred Writ most expressively set out by his Flesh his Body and his Blood p. 11 12 13. Point 2. The Flesh Body and Blood of Christ and all his Actions therein are as so many Preparations that he may be spiritually eaten and drunk p. 14. Point 3. The Humane Nature of Christ and all his Sufferings and Actions in it are so many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Power p. 14 15 16 Point 4. The Divine Power of the Son of God extends the Body and Blood of Christ his Action and suffering therein in their saving virtue without limitation to Time or Place This is branch'd into three Points p. 17. Point 1. The Divine Nature of the Son of God acting in the Humane Nature united to him can draw out such spiritual Efficacies from his Actions and Sufferings therein as shall be most conducive to the Salvation of Souls that believe in him and this is display'd briefly in some Resemblances of Nature though found insufficient to decipher so great a Mystery p. 17 18. Therefore these Efficacies are drawn out into four Causalities according to Scripture 1. Of an eternal propitiatory expiatory Cause p. 19. 2. Of an exemplar Cause p. 20. 3. Of an efficient unitive Cause p. 22. 4. Of an argumentative Cause fill'd also with divine Efficacy p. 23. to p. 26. Point 2. and 3. The Divine Efficacy of Christ cannot be hindered by distance either of Time or Place p. 27 28. General Head the second propounds to shew how clear the Passage is to those Words Take Eat c. from the Point of Christ giving his Flesh to eat by shewing That as there is a rich Communicativeness on the part of Christ giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink so there are receiving Faculties and Powers of Man fitted by Grace that may be truly said in a spiritual sense to eat and to drink as Christ is said to give p. 29 30. This Eating is therefore resembled with eating and drinking 1. As in pledge of Peace and Reconciliation with God p. 31. 2. As a solemn Act of Worship p. 32. 3. As Eating and Drinking is made a Symbol of Eternal Glory p. 32. 4. Principally as Eating and Drinking are in order to Life and Nourishment where the Notion of Transubstantiation hath its most proper place and is most fully discours'd in its spiritual sense p. 32. to the end of p. 38. General Head the third offers a fair Accommodation so as that there may be no Encounter betwixt the Mystery and the Letter or betwixt the grand Sense and the very Words This is my Body discours'd upon the Harmonical Context
is not receiv'd it then does not work Good where that Preparation is not because it is not receiv'd but if it be receiv'd it hath its certain Effect On the other side when it is not receiv'd it does hurt by way of increasing Guilt because a spiritual Offer of so excellent a Nature is refus'd and contemn'd and because the Soul by such pretence of receiving and yet Refusal grows much more confirm'd in Evil. But this is not all for though the Holiness and Spirituality of a Holy Created Finite Spirit may by Instruction Suggestion or Example offer much Good to other Spirits and be instrumental in affecting them aright yet this is in all Regards in so finite and limited a way that the Effect may be very small or none at all and so it is not possible in any more than a very low and abated sense to eat or to drink of the Communications of any Angel or Saint above or below But now whatever is divine is communicative even to what degrees it pleases All Finite is Poor and Scanty and hath not for it self but as received But the Son of God in Humane Nature hath all Fulness dwelling in Col. 1. 19. Him and so can derive and convey to what degrees he thinks fit Of which is to be spoken in the next Particular But this Assures in Christ there is Meat and Drink abounding to the Life of the World The Divine Power of the Son of God and its Efficacy Point 4 extend the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ and his Action therein in their saving Virtue and Effect without limitation to Time or Place and to all dimensions and degrees of Effect And under this Head I will undertake these three Particulars 1. To shew that the Divine Nature of the Son of God acting in the Humane Nature united to Him can draw out such spiritual Powers and Efficacies from those his Actings and Sufferings as shall be most conducing to the Salvation of Souls that believe in Him now this I shall make good by shewing what kind of Causalities and what answerable Effects are by the Word of God ascribed to the Divine Power of Christ Acting in the Humane Nature 2. I will shew that they cannot be prejudg'd nor hindered by any distances of Time because of the Eternity of Jesus Christ the Son of God 3. That they cannot be intercepted by any distances of Place because of the Omnipresence of Jesus Christ the Son of God Now I shall not presume to speak of these Particulars but as I am guided by the Spirit of God in his Word For Who can describe the way of the Divine Spirit in Nature Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me I cannot attain to it if not in Nature how much more not in Grace and supernaturals But yet it is not unworthy to be taken notice of That all Philosophy owns some kind of Effluviums some flowing Atomes Ramenta or little Globules of matter that fly every way or if but some Sympathies in Nature that pass up and down and fly unknown ways and unmeasurable distances without the Load Cumber Presence of those Bodies from which they flow which cannot move nor pass as they do if Spirits of much greater Efficacy are extracted more agile more portable and more easily conveyed than the Bodies themselves from which they are extracted if there are some Relations of unknown Communications of Minds at great distance of Bodies These may be taken notice of as some Illustration of this matter But such things are too slippery and incertain and also too gross to rest so great a Point upon seeing what so infinite an Agent as the Spirit of Holiness can do cannot be grasp'd or comprehended by any material Likenesses its Extractions its Abstractions are more subtile than our gross Apprehensions can find out or receive or natural Agents imitate There are yet in common Observation some Instances that may come nearer this great Point From the vertuous Actions of great Personages in Bodies there is an Honour an Esteem a Dignity an excellent Example flowing out that continues Ages beyond the very Actions and beyond the Persons continuance in Bodies that perform'd them and may be imputed to their Posterity and are as it were Abstracts from Persons in Bodies and yet of a spiritual kind of Diffusiveness as to both Time and Place and much exceed the Places whereupon they were acted that have a kind of Universality both as to Time and Place are nearer the matter we are upon and yet they are but dark and dull shades of so great a Truth Let us therefore come to the Holy Word of God it self and we shall find four kinds of Causality attributed to God manifested in Flesh and to all his Divine Action and suffering therein 1. The Causality of an expiatory propitiatory or meritorious Cause 2. Of an exemplar Cause 3. Of an efficient Cause by way of Union to himself 4. Of a rational argumentative Cause so effecting a Conformity of the Souls of his People to himself There is nothing more evident than that the Gospel ascribes Causality 1 to the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ the Efficacy of an eternal propitiatory expiatory Cause By one Offering Heb. 10. 14. of the Body of Christ and that once for all He hath for ever perfected that is reconcil'd and consecrated them who are sanctified because it was offered by the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 24. His Body is an Offering a Sacrifice of an eternal sweet-smelling Ephes 5. 2. savour because he offer'd himself now himself is God in our Nature so the Offering is in the hand of Divinity Thus his Blood offered by the Eternal Spirit purges the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God The Blood of Christ more precious than Silver or Gold redeems from a vain Conversation All these are plain and high Effects of a spiritual Nature and they are deriv'd from the humane Nature of Christ call'd his Flesh his Body his Blood acted by an intellectual holy humane Soul which delighted to do the Will of God and the Law of God was within his heart And Psal 40. 8. all this by being in the hand of the Divinity of Jesus Christ is infinitely communicative both as to Time and Place The Righteousness of Angels or of Men though they had continued Holy as the standing Angels could not have done this but what Christ the Lamb did he did by the Eternal Spirit which is infinite Now these expiatory Extracts Abstracts drawn from the Body of Jesus Christ are so DIVINIZ'D if I may so speak by the Eternal Spirit That they are every where Christ's Body in this sense may be every where even as his Divinity is with Pardon of Sin Reconciliation to God Peace with him sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience and all other great Effects For where is it that the Gospel is and true Christians are where this Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World
to drink into those Words Take eat this is my Body or from the Doctrine into the Sacrament 3. I shall endeavour to find a fair Accommodation and no Encounter betwixt the Mystery and the Letter or betwixt the grand sense and the very Words This is my Body by a compare of this whole Harmonical Context with other Scripture and its way of speaking in such Cases 4. I will enquire into this Thing How there came such a Notion into the Christian Church as that fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for 5. I will represent to you the danger of such a Doctrine as that Fleshly Transubstantiation not so much as it is a contemplative thing a Notion a manner of Apprehension or matter of Discourse but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration 6. I will close all with practical Applications tending to a constant habitual Preparation for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Now to discharge the first part of this Undertaking I must establish these following Points That the Divine Person of our Lord Jesus Christ taking Point 1 the Humane Nature upon him that Humane Nature is most emphatically express'd in these Words his Body and his Flesh and his Blood or the Body and Flesh and Blood of Christ are the most fit Expressions that could be chosen to set out the Humane Nature of Christ or to set out the Man Christ Jesus Now this being rightly apprehended shews There is the Flesh and there is the Blood of Christ that are to be eaten and drunk by Believers in Jesus Christ That the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Christ and the Point 2 Actions of Christ in his Body in his Flesh and Blood were as so many Preparations of his Body Flesh and Blood to be spiritually eaten by or applied to the Souls of Believers or communicated by them That the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Christ are so Point 3 many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Power Spirit and Efficacy filling them with infinite saving Vertue and Effect in their Communication to the Souls of Believers in Jesus Christ That the divine Power Spirit and Efficacy extends the Point 4 Body Flesh and the Blood of Christ in their saving Vertue and Effect without limitation to Time or Place and to all Dimensions and degrees of Effect The first Point viz. That the most expressive and significant Point 1 Terms concerning the Man Christ Jesus that the Spirit of God hath chosen throughout the Scripture are the Flesh of Christ the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ. This is the first Branch of the Mystery of Godliness God manifest 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 4. 2 3. in the flesh Jesus Christ come in the flesh is made the grand Principle of the Gospel The whole Humane Nature of Christ in which the Son of God was manifest is called Flesh The Word was made Flesh John 1. 14. So the Body of Christ how often is it mention'd The offering of the Body of Christ once for all Heb. 10. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who bare our Sins in his Body on the tree And in all the New Testament there is nothing so memorializ'd as the Blood of Jesus Christ And the Reason is this Because these The Body the Flesh and the Blood are the most visible Representations of Humane Nature and so in Scripture and all Language they are the readiest easiest and most familiar Expressions of Humane Nature The Apostle John therefore so often in his Epistle expresses the whole Doctrine of the Messiah by Christ come in the flesh that is God manifested in flesh So that though it is true Man is chiefly Soul and Spirit and so to be considered yet he is most visible most apparent in Body Flesh and Blood and Humane Nature is so fram'd and constituted that it desires most to appear and display it self in a Body And though God and Christ have a peculiar Care and Account of the Spirits of just men yet they are not Perfect without Bodies and till Christ does appear again in a Body of Glory He is not shewn Pray consider Though He 's now in a Body of Glory yet till he appears in this Body that every Eye may see him God does not till that time shew him whom he will shew who is the onely Potentate c. 1 Tim. 6. 15. that is He will shew Christ Jesus in a Body of Glory at his Appearance though Christ hath been in a Body of Glory ever since his Ascension So Just Men are not made Perfect Heb. 12. 23. till they appear in a Body at the Resurrection Although therefore the Soul of Jesus Christ understand I beseech you what I say was the Principal Agent in all the Work of Redemption yet it was as in a Body in the Action and Passion of a Body It was not indeed a Body that acted that suffered that dyed yet it was in a Body It was the Humane Soul and Spirit of Christ that came to do the Will of God and a Body was prepared him Hebr. 10. 5. It was not a Body but a Soul a Will in Christ that surrender'd it self to the Will of God that said Not my Will but thine be done It was a Spirit that surrender'd it self to God Into thy hands I commit my Spirit yet it was in a Body So it was in the Circumcision of Christ it was the Circumcision of the Spirit not of the Letter Soul and Spirit was the Life and Excellency of all yet all this was visible in a Body it was visible in Flesh and Blood So it was in Christ's fulfilling All Righteousness in his Baptism in all the Holiness of Life There was an Humane Soul a Spirit that acted in and throughout All yet All was still visible in a Body His Soul sent out Strong Cries and Fears with that he offer'd Prayers and Supplications but it was in the days of his Flesh Hebr. 5. 7. He was Circumcised Baptized Died in a Body He arose again in a Body and in such a Body as we carry about with us but just at his Ascension then undoubtedly in the very Time of his Ascending up to Heaven his Body was changed into a Glorious Body so that That Body which was in a state of Humiliation which he carried with him in the World after his Ascension remained no longer in those Circumstances of humbled Flesh and Blood he underwent while he was here in the World for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. and therefore the dayes of Christ's Humiliation are call'd the Days of his Flesh Therefore observe 1 Tim. 3. ult The mystery of Godliness is absolv'd in that Receiv'd Taken up into Glory and there he is hidden to us though swallowed up in the Perfection and Excellency of Glory till God shews him till he appears and is revealed in that Glory From all which amounts That the whole undertaking of Christ was in Body and
his Intercession is now in Body though a Body of Glory Now from hence you may perceive what I drive at viz. That there was great Reason that Christ should say This is my Body This is my Blood because the Body of Christ the Flesh and Blood of Christ was that which was visibly and sensibly active and was to be so throughout the whole Work of our Redemption for Forasmuch as the Children Heb. 2. 14 17. were Partakers of Flesh and Blood he himself took part of the same that c. And it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren The holy Humane Soul and Spirit of Christ was the principal Agent the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ was the Theatre upon which All was made publick the Tube and Channel through which All is convey'd therefore the whole Humane Nature is express'd by Flesh and Blood the Representation of it and the Communication of it is so given in the Doctrine and therefore so in the Lord's Supper The Body Flesh and Blood of Christ and all his Action Point 2 and Suffering in it were as so many Preparations that he may be spiritually eaten applied to and communicated with by the Souls of Believers of which his Death is the most comprehensive and principal as that in which center not only his Incarnation Circumcision Baptism Holy Life Prayers in the Days of his Flesh but even his Resurrection Ascension Intercession at the Right-hand of God and therefore as the Doctrine of the Communion of his Body styles his John 6. 51. Death the giving his Flesh for the Life of the World so the Sacrament of it in the Lord's Supper calls it his Body given for us and the Remembrance of his Death and the whole Application by Faith is call'd Eating in both And proportionably in sense Christ was sent in the Likeness Rom. 8. 3. of sinful Flesh that he might condemn Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us We put off the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ we Col. 2. 11. are buried in his Baptism we rise in his Resurrection and Rom. 6. 4. know the Power of it Phil. 3. 10. We sit in Heavenly Places in him He makes Intercession for us and so saves to the uttermost Heb. 7. 25. And his Death is in all Senses communicated to us All which are in other Words the very same thing with giving us his Flesh te eat and his Blood to drink The humane Nature of Christ call'd his Body his Flesh Point 3 and his Blood and all his Actions and Sufferings in it were so many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Nature Power Efficacy and Virtue of Jesus Christ filling them with infinite saving Virtue and Effect in their Communication to the Senses of Believers in Jesus Christ For in all the Action and Sufferings of Christ the Son of God was immediately Active the Divine Power and Spirit was always present and Active in all as a supreme Spirit and Soul The Incarnation of Christ was a sensible fleshly and bodily Thing But there was a Manifestation of Divinity in it The Power of the most High over-shadowed the Virgin and Rom. 8. 2. Christ was Conceiv'd as we daily Profess by the Holy Ghost The Law of the Spirit of Life purified the Humane Nature of Christ to the highest Elevation of Purity The Circumcision of Christ was a Divine Circumcision made without Col. 2. 11. Hands by the immediate Action of the Divine Spirit for if ours were so much more His the original of it The Baptism of Christ was full of a Divine Presence The Spirit rested like a Dove upon Him This is my beloved Son c. Matt. 3. 18. Philip. 3. 9. His Obedience and Righteousness was the Righteousness of God In his Death he offer'd Himself by the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14. His Blood is called the Blood of God He Rose by the Spirit Acts 20. 28. of Holiness which Justified Him He is made higher than the Heavens in his Intercession And this is of supreme Consideration in all the Communications of Christ in all our Eating and Drinking his Flesh and his Blood as may be seen in that excellent Discourse John 6. to which the Lord's Supper is a parallel Representation As the Living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father v. 57. even so he that eateth me shall live by me For his Flesh eaten is the Conduit of divine Life It is the Spirit viz. the Divine Nature that quickneth The Flesh profiteth nothing v. 63. The Words that I speak unto you are Spirit and they are Life that is by the Vertue and Presence of the Divinity of which they were spoken for by Power he is declar'd to be Rom. 1. 4. the Son of God viz. by the Power of the Divinity He was 2 Cor. 13. 4. put to death through weakness but he liveth by the Power of 1 Pet. 3. 18. God He was put to death in the Flesh quickned by the Spirit If any Man therefore considers the Actions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh and does not consider the Divine Nature in them he does not consider that which our Saviour says Quickens He only considers that which our Saviour saith Profits nothing From hence therefore it is plainly first to be understood that it is most impossible Material or Bodily should by it self do any thing to that which is Spiritual Immaterial Intellectual as is the Soul of Man The Sun though so glorious a Body can do nothing to Man's Soul immediately and suppose the Body of Christ as much higher in Glory than any thing we know in Nature as the Sun excells a Turf of Earth yet this very glorious Body can do nothing to our Souls to our Spirits It can do nothing in these great Negotiations of Peace with God Purification of our Consciences Sanctification This is so acknowledg'd a thing that you know as many as know any thing of Transubstantiation as it is held in the Roman Persuasion That they themselves confess That if a Man Eat that very transubstantiated Body and Drink that very transubstantiated Blood of Christ though it is as they suppose the Body and Blood of Christ in the most fleshly sensible Presence we can imagine yet it does a wicked Man no good a Man who hath not Faith and Repentance And it is very true it must needs be so because it is a material thing and cannot act so as to act upon spiritual and immaterial Things on the other side it can do no hurt to these immaterial Beings But if it did operate after the manner of material Things upon material I cannot conceive how it should miss the best Effect seeing it is infinitely prepar'd to do good in that very Case of presupposed Evil of Sin but when it is spiritual and requires spiritual Preparation to receive it or else it
Eternal Life Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life 4. I come now to the last and greatest of those Resemblances between the Flesh or Body eaten and Christ's Blood drunk in the Lord's Supper and natural Eating and Drinking viz. Life and Nourishment and this is that upon which the weight and stress of the whole matter lies and in order to the understanding of this it is most necessary well to weigh the Words Take Eat This is my Body And drink ye All for This Cup is my Blood For here the Notion of Transubstantiation hath the most proper place and here it will be most properly to be decided and here I will allow the utmost to it that can be allowed I have then as I hope made evident The real Communication of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in its spiritual saving and redemptory Effects without any change of Place is no incompossible Notion to the Divine Power of the Son of God And this being rightly apprehended It will be as evident He can convey through such mediatory Channels and Conveyances as he pleases those divine Influences It is out of all Controversie The Truth of his Word and Gospel together with Prayer and holy Meditation begetting in the Soul Knowledge spiritual Understanding Faith Repentance Love and the whole New Creation are the primary and fundamental Conveyances of such divine Influences by which the sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ touch the Soul and unite with it unto all the salvifick Effects of Spiritual and Eternal Life And the very effects of Truth and the Word of God uniting the Soul to Christ through the Efficacy of his Divine Power and Spirit are in the first place before the Lord's Supper Instituted compar'd to Meat and Drink And as They in the Course of that Providence or Word of God by which Man lives and not by Bread alone are Transubstantiated into the Body Flesh and Blood of those that Eat and Drink them even so the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in these saving Effects are Transubstantiated into the Soul and Spirit of every faithful Receiver of them and enliven them to a spiritual and eternal Life and there can be no fitter Notion of these Divine Effects than this Transubstantiation of natural Meat and Drink and Incorporation thereof into the Eater for even as what is eaten according to the nature of Perishables lives in the Eater dwells in the Eater and he in that and they are one in one another even so they that Eat Christ dwell in Christ and Christ in them Christ lives in his Church and Saints out of which he is pleas'd not to live as our Mediator and Head But he lives in them as in his Fullness and they in him as in their Fountain of Life Christ in them and They in him by this spiritual Transubstantiation or else they have no life in them but pine away as through want of Nourishment This then being the true measure of eating and drinking Christ and the spiritual Transubstantiation arising from it as in the general Doctrine of the Gospel it must give Law and Rule to our eating and drinking of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper that we may rightly understand it and so to the Transubstantiation flowing from it It must be all in our spiritual Transformation into Christ living in us and we in him and no other in that principal Notion But because in all Intellectual and Spiritual Communications of Truth to our Minds there are no sensible no material Images or Representations and that by the Wisdom of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper there are those sensible Images of Bread eaten and Wine drunk and these Cargoed and enrich'd with the Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that these are to awaken collect and sum all our intellectual rational and spiritual Notions of Christ the Vertue of his Sacrifice and whole Transaction of the Humane Nature and our closest Application thereunto as to our Redemption by him It must needs therefore be that the Bread and Wine as to our Understandings our Souls and all intellectual and spiritual Appetite and Action having done their very first Service of leading us through the whole suitableness betwixt Bread and Wine and the natural Life of Man and the same suitableness betwixt the Body and Blood of Christ and the Life of the Soul according to the Institution they must immediately drop their bodily and sensible Nature and become to our Minds Thoughts and Affections the Body and Blood of Christ. And it pertains to the Divine Power of Jesus Christ and his Eternal Spirit to make in a spiritual Reality that Bread and Wine his very Body and Blood in all its Efficacies to us if we are duely prepar'd so to receive them And the inward high and saving Effects to all Intents and Purposes immediately follow But yet if the true natural Realities of these Elements or the subsequent unitive Incorporating Vertues of those Elements were lost not only the Institution it self founded on those sensible Qualities would be lost but the very Body and Blood of Christ by such a monstrous kind of Miracle would become outward Elements to themselves for by the very Confession of the gross Transubstantialist They however Transubstantiated do no good without Faith and Repentance and so do no more than the Vntransubstantiated Bread and Wine may do and so prodigious a Miracle serves to no purpose which is most absurd For it makes the Body and Blood mere outward Elements to themselves The Bread and Wine then must as to the bodily Senses as to the natural Effects upon the Body be Themselves or keep their own Natures but as to the spiritual Sentiments and the spiritual Effects they must be thus Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Cbrist in regard of Christ really communicating them by his divine Power to the Soul as the Soul by Faith must receive them There must therefore be the Conduct of all the Instituted Actions Blessing Breaking Taking Eating the Bread Blessing Dividing among our selves Drinking All of the CUP and that in a solemn manner as in an Act of spiritual Worship with Reverence and godly Fear else it is not to eat the Lord's Supper for If a Priest not rightly ordain'd or not intending to consecrate the Bread shall in the very Judgment of the Transubstantialist defeat the sacred Institution how much more ought in the very same mens Judgments the Neglect or Omission of any of the solemn Instituted Acts evacuate the spiritual use and end of which the natural use of the Bread and Wine necessarily to that end continuing in their Natures was one great part and therefore undoubtedly if the Stomachs of Communicants were open'd as Alexander open'd the Stomach of his Souldier to find whether the Milk charg'd upon him to be taken away from the poor Woman by violence were there and there he found it so the Bread and Wine would be found in